Books › Modern violin-playing, 1920 › scan 156
Scan 156
Modern violin-playing, 1920
16 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 86. See the scan on archive.org.
1This is the ideal trill. And on most instruments, from force of circumstance, it remains this and nothing more. But the violin offers its devotees so many opportunities of what may be called "experimental misbehaviour," that at least two sorts of spurious trill are to be heard quite frequently in our concert-rooms.
3The first sort is the whirring dragonfly trill, a kind of trembling flutter of sound, that is often indistinguishable from a violent vibrato of the incorrect type. It is performed by holding the rigid trill-finger as near the string as possible, and then (by a kind of nervous impulse) causing it to vibrate and touch the string lightly at each downward flicker.
5The second sort is rather worse. In executing this trill, the player holds the knuckle of the trill-finger three-quarters rigid. Thus, every attempt on his part to bring the finger-tip down on the string draws the stationary finger forward with a rolling movement onto its tip. The painful oscillations of the lower tone that result produce the kind of sound that one associates with a nanny-goat in distress.
7Besides these two zoological indiscretions, there is a third sort of degraded trill that may just be mentioned—the trill over a minor third. This perversity, though dreadful enough to listen to, is less frequently heard, and is by no means employed only by violinists.
9A great deal might be written on the subject of these disfigurements. But one need only say that they are not really trills at all, but cramping and blemishing affectations, that harm both the ear and the musical sense.
11As an antidote to them, let it be added that, with a correct trilling-technique, there will be neither cramp, nor movement of the low finger. The trill-finger will operate so easily and will stop the string so definitely that clearly-alternating notes will be the sole audible result. In fact, we shall have attained our ideal of all that is beautiful and effective in a trill.
13A beginner, as a rule, has certain misconceptions with regard to the trill. He is frightened by the sound of the rapid alternation of notes. He is also inclined to overestimate its speed woefully. He thinks of it as a low tone surmounted by a flutter. (This is, perhaps, his subconscious reduplication of the wavy printed trill-sign.) Hence, he falls into the error of considering its practical execution to be conducted solely by the trill-finger. He almost ignores the low finger.
15Now, while it is quite true that the effect of the trill is that of two distinct alternating notes, the main prop of the trill is the stationary
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